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Reaching 200 pt 1

Since my last post we have been to 25 new breweries. No time to post!…I know #girlbeerproblems Our tale to 200 breweries…

In the beginning of October we traveled down the Central Coast to attend a wedding. We had never been to this area before and planned to “complete” all the breweries (11) in three days, while attending to our wedding duties.

On Friday, October 4th we left at 6am in order to make the most of our day. The sun wasn’t up yet and we were already headed to Firestone Walker. Of all the numerous beers we’ve had from Firestone we have never been there before. Also, Velvet Merkin had just been released to add the cherry on top of excitement!

We arrived at Firestone just after 10am and their Visitor Center was open. We ordered tasters of the beers we hadn’t tried yet (Oaktoberfest, Velvet Merkin, Parabajava, and Agrestic Ale) and the ones we just had to have at the source (Wookey Jack)! The beer was incredible and I wish we could have stayed and done a tour, but we had 6 more breweries planned for the day.

We drove down the road, which couldn’t have been more than 3-4 minutes and hit BarrelHouse Brewing. They had been open for less than a year and the facility was gorgeous. The tasting bar was nestled among the tanks, which opened up to a gorgeous outdoor garden and patio. We ordered a sampler and the standout was the Barrel Aged Double IPA at over 100 IBUs. I’m really interested to see more examples barrel aged on IPA’s . This is a great place to relax, have a beer and enjoy being outside. Alas, we already were on our way to number 3 and it wasn’t even noon yet.

We explored downtown Paso Robles to visit Downtown Brewing for beer and lunch. Downtown Brewing had terrible reviews and I was a little hesitant. They seem to be a bar and restaurant that either brews on the side or someone brews for them. I heard they are connected to SLO Brewing, but not sure. We had lunch and I ordered their Raven Porter, which was tasty.

We then headed to Dunbar Brewing, which headed up being one of our favorites of the trip. Chris, the owner and brewer was behind the bar and it seems like he is a one-man show. We tried their IPA’s and then he tapped a Scottish Heavy that was to die for. Not enough breweries make this beer in my opinion or they just don’t do it right. Dunbar specializes in English style beers and has a really good guest tap list and fridges of bottles to go or enjoy their. Highly recommend this place.

Four breweries is usually our limit, but we were just tasting at each place. We headed to Molly Pitcher Brewing in Atascadero and got our usual sampler. They had an Imperial Red, Pale Ale, IPA, and a Session Stout. All were spot on and unfortunately we left to quickly to really appreciate the surroundings. The ”pains” of #beertravel. Would defiantly go back if we are in town again.

We now headed back to downtown Paso Robles to visit Paso Robles Brewing. They only had one of their own beers on tap their Pale Ale. We shared a pint and soon realized that we were in a Dodger bar filled with Dodger dogs on the menu. Luckily we didn’t have any orange and black on and my husband was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates hat….no one picks on the Pirates. Unfortunately, wasn’t much of a brewery…more of a tap room.

That put us at 6 and we still had one more to go. We headed to the little town of Cambria, which happened to be where the wedding was. Cambria reminded my of Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls because everyone knew each other and they dressed the town up for holidays….it was decked out in themed scarecrows for Halloween. Really there were over 50!

Cambria Brewing had been open just over a year. The tasting room was nicely decorated and very welcoming. Also a one-man show, Aaron poured us our sampler. We sat by the window and watched as locals strolled about town. Everything was just cozy. The beers were really tasty and a great ending to our extreme beer travel day.

We had never done 7 breweries in a day before and I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. We weren’t able to pay as much attention to the breweries because we were always onto the next….but when in Rome (Central Coast). This put us at 197 breweries…200 was just a day away.